Miscellany: Apollo 11 computer crash, Malcolm Gladwell deconstructing law school admissions ... and maggots

Today is the day 50 years ago that the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon ... there have been a boatload of articles and specials commemorating their achievement, but as a computer guy I found a Wired article especially interesting ...

During the final approach to the moon's surface, the guidance computer "crashed" several times, giving just warning codes to Buzz Aldrin, the pilot. It finally turned out that the software was too busy with other activities like changing the thrusters minutely to be able to get the right display codes to Aldrin ...

Amazing that the thing worked at all, running in a tiny memory space that they had available ...

As well as a superbly performing technical organization, NASA probably had another type of resource available:

But how do lawyers get into law school, and does law school prepare them for the profession?

Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast has been consistently excellent and fascinating, especially these two:

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/31-puzzle-rush

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/32-the-tortoise-and-the-hare


From lawyers, finally, we come to ...

Yes, maggots ... an important source of food (for humans!) for the future, according to this company ...

Yummm! :-)

Apple News destruction of Texture leads me to a free alternative

I was pitched by Amazon about 18 months ago to try this digital Magazine app Texture:

I tried it an it was worthwhile ... $10 per month for digital magazine copies of several magazines that I was getting already at a significantly higher price for the print version.

Unfortunately, Apple bought Texture and killed it in favor of its own "Apple News +"

I didn't like it half as well; not only did it not keep some of the magazines I was getting from Texture, its interface was just lots of individual stories that you can read individually.

I like getting an issue of a magazine or newspaper so I can know when I'm DONE!

I happened to be in one of our fabulous local King County Libraries and saw an ad for another app called RBDigital with magazines:

I cancelled Apple News + and am just using this now. It's not perfect: the interface is a little clunky and not as nice as Texture's ... but it's free.

It's not a perfect replacement; it doesn't carry some magazines that Texture did, notably the Atlantic Monthly. But it carries some magazines that Texture didn't, too:

It doesn't have the 'modern interface' that Texture and Conde Nast promote: navigation horizontal, stories vertical. Instead it's just copies closely turning a print magazine page.

This OK with me, especially at this price point!

Happy reading ...